In the dry spring of 1999, eleven-year-old Stephen Majok watches as his friend Wol joins a circle of dancers. Wol is celebrating--only fourteen, he is engaged to Stephen`s sister. Wol wants to marry because he might join the guerrillas in southern Sudan and fight the northern government soldiers. He wants a wife to remember him. Stephen thinks Wol is crazy. Children should study. But because of the civil war, there has been no school in their village for over a year. All Stephen has left from his student days is his books and one precious pencil--and the hunger for knowledge. Then, suddenly--but not unexpectedly--exploding bombs are heard in the tiny village. Stephen`s mother tells him to hurry, pack his back, and hide beyond the forest with Wol and their friend Deng. Stephen grabs his geography book, his pencil, and little else. He does not want to leave his mother and sister. He does not want to leave the life he loves... Trenchant and touching, Alice Mead`s story about a Sudanese boy`s flight offers readers a rare look at life in a ravaged African country, where the North and South are at war, as seen through the eyes of this brave, optimistic boy, willing to go wherever there is water, food, freedom, and the opportunity to learn--but always yearning for home.